PC Question

[FallenAce]

For those of you experienced with data recovery:

I had a partition - the primary XP partition - crash in an old workstation. I want to copy the files before I reformat. I loaded the HDD in another workstation, but the partition will not open. I can open the second (logical) partition no problem. The Disk Manager shows the partition is healthy, but it does not identify the filesystem (NTFS).

Obviously, this is a problem. I'm running out of options, and I didn't know if anyone had tried this before:

If I merge the two partitions, what do you suppose the chances are that I can recover the files?

I don't think using a Live CD will work either, since the partition is not readable via another workstation, unless a Linux Live CD somehow has a masterful control over NTFS. I have not tried running a disk checker, since the machine can't seem to access the partition. The only other thing I can think to do is to format it and use a data recovery manager, but I don't know of a good recovery manager for post-format. Any suggestions?

To give details, Last Known will not load, Safe Mode will not load, Normal will not load: they all cause an immediate reboot. I placed the drive in a USB caddy, and only the second partition can be explored. I placed the drive inline with another EIDE inside the workstation and had the same thing happen. Also, NTFS is not viewable via DOS.

[coolcool23]

I would copy off everything you can from the partition that's readable and then give merging a shot because after you're done with the readable one I don't think you have too many options with the unreadable one.

[Kevhouse]

Windows XP? I assume you've already tried the restore point, correct? You might lose the last week or so of data but at least you can save the majority of it.

This is why you should always spend little more and get an external hdd to back everything up to.

[FallenAce]

Thanks, this machine hasn't really been used for about 6 months. Back when it first had problems I backed up all the important files.

In order to do a system restore, you have to be able to boot Windows. Something went sour on the partition, hence I can't boot Windows, nor am I having any luck accessing the data by dropping the hard drive in another computer.

[orange_black]

theres data recovery tools you can use BEFORE formatting.... even if the drive is unreadable... i had this problem a while back...

i lost alot of info.. but i also was able to recover alot of info.

the one i used was .......... http://www.stellarinfo.com/disk-recovery.htm

good luck, man

:)